Customer Reviews

The People That Time Forgot

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The People That Time Forgot" is a 1977 sequel to the 1975 film "The Land That Time Forgot." In between these two there was the 1976 film "At the Earth's Core," which is mentioned mainly because all three films star Doug McClure, are directed by Kevin Connor, and are based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Ironically, the tag line for this film makes it sound like the films are a trilogy, although "At the Earth's Core" is based on the Pelucidar series. This film is definitely the weakest of the three, which is not all that surprising because it is based on the second book of a second rate series of potboilers by ERB. Once you get past Tarzan if you are looking for an ERB property to turn into a film you should be looking at the Martian novels about John Carter first, and then maybe Carson of Venus series or "The Outlaw of Torn." But this Burroughs rehash of "The Lost World" is not the place to go looking first.

The basic plot reminds you a lot of "Return to the Planet of the Apes. Major Ben McBridge (Patrick Wayne) leads an expedition to Antarctica to find his friend, the American adventurer Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure), who is marooned on the lost continent, Caprona, a.k.a., the land that time forgot, where there are dinosaurs and cavemen. McBridge has a plane, but it crashes and his little expedition has to survive until they find McClure (where they can break the good news that they are there to rescue him!). McClure had to deal with Germans from a U-Boat but McBridge has to put up with Lady Charlotte Cunningham (Sarah Douglas), who goes from royal pain to damsel in distress pretty quickly once things start happening, Dr. Edwin Norfolk (Thorley Walters), who fortunately knows everything about dinosaurs and cavemen, and Hogan (Shane Rimmer), the faithful side kick who is the obvious first choice to be dinosaur food.

"The People That Time Forgot" provides the same sort of lousy special effects that plagued "The Land That Time Forgot," but without the non-stop action and adventure that redeemed that first film. Besides, Tyler has ditched Lisa, his paramour from the first film and replaced her with Ajor (Dana Gillespie), a cave woman who probably took the pretty English biologist apart with that big knife. There is no need to watch this sequel out of a sense of completeness to the "story," because you are not going to be happy to the ending. However, pay attention to the Executioner, who is played by David Prowse, who came to this set after having wrapped up a little film called "Star Wars."

For years now, THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT was not on DVD .Obviously some moron thought it was better release the second part first. Looks like he was fired and THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT is coming to DVD.

THE GOOD NEWS except for those of us that already bought THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT and have every reason to feel ripped off:

It's Part of an MGM Midnite Movies Double Feature wave
Street Date August 24th 2004
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT/THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT

THE BAD NEWS:

EXCLUSIVE to BEST BUY

A few years after the happened in Land That Time Forgot, and the navy have returned to the lost world of Caprona to find the missing survivor from the previous film. This carries on its predecessor's trend of strong characters and good storylines - and the monsters are good considering the low budget. It also develops things mentioned in Land, such as the lost island being a living thing with creatures as cells moving through its bloodstream and a volcanic self-defence against any invading viral strains. Certainly well worth watching.

Have you ever watched a film from the 1970's and looked at the special effects and thought "Gee, they were using these same scraping the bottom effects twenty years ago in the fifties and they weren't all that impressive then!" Well, this was the third in a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptions and the sequel to 1975's the Land that time forgot. The Dinosaurs are done with handpuppets, guys in rubber suits and pulled along on strings and wheels. The cavepeople (except for Dana Gillespie) wear greasepaint and many of them wear latex pieces between the bridge of their noses and their foreheads, I guess that was to give their cranium such a different shape from the modern characters. Making the realization that this film was made the same year as Star Wars also makes one grimace a little more at the effects. If this film has these visual shortcomings, why then did I give it three stars? I think director Kevin Connor (who has done a whole lot of films since this time) realized that this was going to be a kids movie, so he kept the science and explanations ata minimum and kept the characters moving through the film. The key here was pacing and the stars are running a track meet here, searching, chasing and fighting, but never stopping too long for the budget's flaws to catch up to it. Fight scenes and explosions can go along way and this film has plenty of both. Not a classic, but still a fun film fro all ages. This one is just a little better than the Land that time forgot, but not quite as good as At the earth's core.

Back in the heyday of 70's Amicus scifi Edger Rice Buroughs book adaptions, this was the sequal to the Land that Time Forgot. The special effects aren't bad and a cavewoman in skimpy clothes always helps. This has been one of my favorite films since childhood and will always remain as such.

I purchased this not expecting a lot, and I wasn't disappointed. Loosely based on the writings of Edgar Rice Burrows, The People That Time Forgot (1977) is actually the third movie in a trilogy, the other two being The Land That Time Forgot (1975), and At the Earth's Core (1976).

The movie starts off on a ship cruising around artic waters. We learn an expedition has been mounted to locate Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) who went missing from a previous campaign. The team is made up of your fairly standard expedition team members, including the somewhat chauvinistic and handsome leader, Major Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne), his comic relief, boozy (he calls it 'nerve tonic'), smart alecky co-pilot/mechanic Hogan (Shane Rimmer), a beautiful and spunky photographer Lady Charlotte Cunningham (Sarah Douglas), and finally the crusty, brushy mustached anthropologist type (you know what I'm talking about) Dr. Edwin Norfolk (Thorley Walters). Once the boat arrives at a certain location among the icebergs, the team sets out in a rather goofy looking amphibian aircraft. Now I'm no aeronautical engineer, but I credit the fact that this thing could fly more to Hollywood magic than to its' soundness as an aircraft.

After flying for about, oh ten minutes or so, the snow-capped mountains give way to a tropical landscape (some lost land). This sets up the first encounter with a dinosaur, a very amorous yet lifeless, wooden pterodactyl. After the flying creature tries to mate with the plane, the amphibian aircraft suffers some damage and must land. Once on the ground, Ben decides that he, Lady Charlotte and Dr. Norfolk will go searching for Bowen Tyler, while Hogan will stay behind and make the necessary repairs to the dubious aircraft.

During their search, the trio runs into a rather busty cavewoman named Ajor (Dana Gillespie) clad in typical, skimpy, barely there cavewoman attire. I have to say, Ajor is one of the most well groomed cavewoman I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. Turns out she knows Bowen, as she came from a tribe that he's been living with for the last two years. She also states (she learned to speak English from Bowen) that another tribe wiped out her tribe out of jealousy and kidnapped Bowen. Apparently, competition to evolve within the cave dwelling community is pretty fierce, and Bowen would certainly provide and advantage.

Okay, so Ajor leads the group to the ancient City of the Skulls. See that really bad matte painting? This must be the place. On approaching the city, a group of samurai soldiers comes out to greet and escort them into the city. Once there, we get to meet the leader, Saballa. Oh man, this guy's a treat! Imagine the Jolly Green Giant only shorter, uglier, and extremely out of shape and you've got Saballa. I kept expecting him to produce a can of corn niblets. Anyway, seems Saballa doesn't want to be friends, and throws the men into a cell, while keeping the women with the intention of sacrificing them to the mighty volcano god.

While in their cell, the two men found out Bowen Tyler is in the next cell, and they push their way through the wall (some cell) and we get our first look at heavily bearded and unkempt Bowen (Doug McClure). The men escape, mount a rescue for the women, which leads up to a final confrontation with Saballa and some of his goons. I have to say, those samurai outfits looked pretty good, but seem very much out of place in a movie about a prehistoric land. The group escapes, but now the volcano god is angered (I guess), as all hell breaks loose. I had to wonder if the studio had a surplus stash of explosives they wanted to get rid of, as the last ten minutes or so of the movies is laden with the landscape blowing up, blowing up real good. Do they all make it? Does everyone survive? Do I really care at this point? No, and you won't either.

Basically this movie played out like an hour and a half version of the TV show Land of the Lost. Looking for a good, or even passable adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's book? Stick with the book. This isn't a completely awful movie, as there's plenty of laughs, and a little eye candy, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend anyone run out and buy this one.

Another reviewer mentioned the appearance of David Prowse as the executioner in this movie and his going on to play Darth Vader in a little movie called Star Wars...another tie in to that movie is the hairstyle Sarah Douglas sports is exactly the same as Princess Leia's except Sarah's cinnibuns are a bit smaller.

"The PEOPLE That Time Forgot" is the much inferior 1977 sequel to "The Land That Time Forgot" from 1975. The basic plot is essentially identical to "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," albeit far less serious.

An expedition (including Patrick Wayne and Sarah Douglas) goes to the savage artic hidden land of Caprona to find Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure). There they run into fairly cheesy prehistoric creatures and a ravishing cavewoman named Ajor (Dana Gillespie). She leads them to the Mountain of the Skull wherein Tyler is held captive by a hostile neanderthal-like tribe dressed in cool samurai apparel.

WHAT WORKS: The Spanish locations are outstanding, as are the costumes and many of the life-size sets and opticals. The story moves along pretty quickly (the flick's only 90 minutes long). Patrick Wayne and Doug McClure are Great and Dana Gillespie is awe-inspiring in her skimpy cavegirl outfit, in fact, in my opinion Dana blows the more popular Raquel Welch in "One Million Years BC" out of the water (Raquel is a bit too thin to my tastes; Dana has far better curves).

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The story is less serious than "The Land That Time Forgot" (i.e. campier) and not nearly as compelling; in other words, don't expect for a second to be enraptured by the story. The miniature sets are too-obviously unreal and the creature F/X are only mediocre-to-poor (for the time period).

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you're into these types of Edgar Rice Burroughs adventures, "People" is certainly worth having in your video library. It's nothing exceptional or captivating, but it's certainly fun, light and brisk. And catching the voluptuos Dana Gillespie at the height of her physical beauty is a must. Lastly, it's far, far better than the ridiculously awful "At the Earth's Core."

This piece of silliness is a more or less direct sequel to THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. The message in a canister that the hero of that movie threw into the sea at the end of the film brings a second expedition to the "land that time forgot" to try to locate and rescue Bowen Tyler and Lisa Clayton. The rescue party is better equipped, having somehow managed to bring along an amphibian aircraft. The party consists of an old buddy of Bowen Tyler's, Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne); an alcoholic copilot named Hogan (Shane Rimmer), who, thankfully, is left out of most of the action); Dr. Edwin Norfolk (Thorley Walters), a scientist (to provide the correct names for all the prehistoric miniatures they encounter), and of course the obligatory female, this time a feisty photographer named Charly (Sarah Douglas), who is there to chronicle the event because her father has put up the money for the expedition. They take off from the water and fly to the interior and crash land. The obnoxious copilot remains behind (thankfully) to repair the plane while everyone else sets out to locate the survivors of the first film.

Along the way they meet a cave girl with Farrah Fawcett hair and perfect makeup (not to mention a costume that shows cleavage to the navel), who happens to speak excellent English, having been taught by the very man they're looking for. She agrees to lead them to Bowen, which allows for encounters with less educated and far uglier primitive men, who are bent on the annihilation of everyone more educated and less ugly than they. Eventually they're taken captive by soldiers wearing armor and riding horses. (I'm not kidding!) They are taken to a series of caves, the entrance of which is a group of gigantic skulls. The women are prepared (in red silk garments, but don't concern yourself with where this fabric came from) to be sacrificed to the gods of the volcano. The men are locked in a cave, complete with bars on the door. In an adjacent cave is Bowen, from the first movie. They break through the connecting wall and form a formidable trio who set out to rescue the two damsels. They reunite and all flee, but not before the bad chieftain gets tossed into the volcano, setting it off. The remainder of the movie has multicolored explosions representing the molten lava spewing forth.

The group all manage to return to the plane and take off, reconnoitering with the ship, which is about to leave the area without them. Everyone lives happily ever after except Bowen, who is shot in the tummy with an arrow and is left behind...once again.

The movie is ridiculously stupid and even more ludicrous than the previous film.

It does have one funny line, though I'm sure it wasn't intended as such. There's the sound of some beast bellowing in the distance. Someone says, "What is it?" And the dinosaur expert says, "It can only be one thing...prehistoric." Brilliant!

"The People That Time Forgot" (1977) is the sequel to "The Land That Time Forgot (1975). Both titles were borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs along with the basic premise, a prehistoric tropical paradise in the heart of Antarctica; inhabited by dinosaurs and cavemen. Burroughs detailed how volcanic activity kept the region warm and how a rim of mountains protected the land from the frozen temperatures that surrounded it. The film does not bother to include these scientific details nor much else from the original Burrough's stories so don't think less of him just because some hacks borrowed his idea and make this movie.

The movie features an expedition to find Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) the main character in the 1975 film. The rescue effort is not exactly massive, it is a tiny four person expedition led by Tyler's childhood friend Major Ben McBride (John Wayne's son Patrick). The pairing of these two actors was probably an effort to demonstrate to the world that there was actually an actor out there with less talent than McClure. Wayne peaked at age 18 with a bit part as the youthful Lt. Greenhill in his dad's film "The Searchers" and mysteriously managed to find a succession of acting opportunities in vehicles so bad that even he could not damage them to any great extent.

The bottom line is that this movie works best as a mock party feature; complete with laughably bad special effects, Saturday matinée serial quality production design, and high school play quality acting. Also good for some laughs is Dana Gillespie as cave girl exploitation element Ajor. Dana was a British singer, best remembered not for her tunes but for her lingerie clad presence on the cover of her album "Weren't Born a Man". Despite her enormous talents I always thought she looked too "Butch".

A young Sarah Douglas (of "Superman" fame) plays the newspaper reporter accompanying the expedition. Douglas was extremely beautiful at that age and has a fair degree of acting ability as well. I'm not sure what is the most out of place, a classy young woman heading into the jungle with this group or a competent actress being included in this lame ensemble.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The Duke would have been proud of his son for making such a fine film. An expedition to the South Pole in search of a missing scientist brings forth a movie of which the world has never seen the likes of!

Enroute to the rescue the party is attacked by a pteridactl that downs their plane in the middle of no where. They must lasso a stegasaurus to get the plane unstuck. Special effects indeed that you must see to believe. But even more amazing than the special effects in the Cave Girl, ohh la la!!!!!

Her beauty must be seen to be appreciated. For a cavewoman she looks great. Perfect salon hair, makeup, shaved legs, and a rack that cannot be described. Her breasts are unlike anything I've ever seen, as if done by an artist. Her cleavage is absolutly perfect. This chick would give rival cavegirl Raquel Welch a run for her money.

Well the party survives attacks by more dinosaurs, vicious cavemen, and weird Samuris who ride on horseback. They worship a volcano god that wants sacrifices all the time. The chief priest looks a lot like Tor Johnson, the hulking Swedish wrestler who starred in Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Beast of Yucca Flats.

For fun, adventure, and an angry pilot who likes to yell "Goddammit!" a lot and shoot down flying dinosaurs, then The People that Time Forgot is perfect for you!